The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.

Derrick Nugawela’s parents belonged to the Nugawela and Panabokke families, distinguished landowners in Kandy and successful politicians in Colombo during the State Council period, and thereafter in the early years after independence. He himself however, after the early death of his father, had to make his own way, and became a planter, where he had to work himself up in a profession dominated by British expatriates. By the sixties he ran one of the best plantations in Sri Lanka, while also being a Volunteer Officer who was put in charge of Hambantota during the 1971 insurgency. Having later emigrated to Australia, he had to again make his own way there, before returning to Sri Lanka for Citibank, and later becoming a Director of the Board of Investment.

Though they have what might be termed offside aspects, the three comedies I looked at earlier are enormously jolly, and their happy endings perfectly satisfactory. Very different are the dark comedies, where the happy couplings with which the plays end result from very dark beginnings.

The action of two of these plays springs from what seems perverse jealousy. In The Winter’s Tale, King Leontes of Sicily suspects his wife of being too close to his old friend, Polixenes the King of Bohemia, and torments her to what he believes is death. He has also packed off to be killed the newborn child he suspects is not his own. The nobleman he assigns for this task does die, being last seen, in the most horrid stage direction in Shakespeare, being pursued by a bear. But the child is found and – being therefore called Perdita – survives to be reunited with her father. At this point it transpires that his abused wife did not in fact die, and what is supposed to be a statue of her comes back to life, after which the perverse king presumably lives happily ever after.

Jealousy of a different sort propels the action of Cymbeline, where the Roman husband of Imogen, the daughter of the British King Cymbeline, has a bet about his wife’s chastity while back in Rome. The villain who cannot seduce Imogen tricks Procopius, who disowns his wife, and there is much suffering before his faith in her is restored and we have a happy ending.

What relieves the darkness of these plays is the joy with which Shakespeare endows the rural simplicity into which the deprived women are driven. Imogen in fleeing the court finds herself in a cave where her brothers who had been stolen away beforehand live a rustic life. They, and Perdita and her foster family in the greenwood, are great fun. Continue reading →

What Tom our President was doing when fires began blazing out over the city is not something that can dogmatically be declared. It depends after all to some extent on what sort of a President we want; though we must course also present reasons for the fires being allowed to flourish, for no action being taken so that the mob is permitted to cavort unrestrained through the streets until it reaches Shiva’s place and rushes in, and indeed out again and on and on and on. Let us now therefore picture the President in full control himself of a situation with which he finds nothing amiss, striding in full dress uniform up and down his operation room, leaping at intervals to various multi-coloured telephones to assert his sovereign will. At moments of great intensity he slaps his thigh with his swagger stick, barking into the instrument at anxious army and police officers who ring up for orders, ‘Do not sh-sh-sh-shoot. Everything is safely in my hands. Do not worry, gentlemen. I am in full command of the situation.’

In this situation, Matthew alone of his Ministers would be with him, dressed naturally in resplendent white. Tom would not like many people to know he enjoyed dressing up in uniform, nor indeed anything else about this exciting evening. All entrances and exits would be closely guarded, with only the Black Shadow freely darting in and out to look over and coordinate certain practical details. During the occasional moments when Tom’s resolve falters, Matthew will firmly and resolutely prove to him that he has no alternative if his authority is not to be flouted totally; the Tamils have to be taught a lesson, and even if no one else does Matthew’s shock troops will do the job if only Tom will let them. Continue reading →